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Spanish Train Crash Death Toll Remains 69 After Authorities Revise Figure
The high-speed train collision in Urda, in the Spain’s province of Toledo, has 69 deaths confirmed on October 29, with 107 injured still hospitalized after a train was cleared to move despite a safety system failure.
The Spanish Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF) rectified this afternoon the last figure of death people of the train accident of Wednesday in Urda, in the Spanish province of Toledo, south of Madrid, mantaining at 69 the number of fatalities. The correction came minutes after the same agency raised the figure to 74 on its website.
Sources from the Ministry of Transport assured that the official data are those provided by the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha and that they do not confirm “any data” of those deaths, despite the figure published earlier on the website of the Commission of Investigation of Railway Accidents (CIAF), which is hosted on the page of the Ministry.
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According to the account provided by authorities, the LZB safety system on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line went down at 8:30 A.M. local time, forcing at least six trains to stop. Six minutes later, at 8:36 A.M. local time, the control center authorized the Renfe AVE train to resume its journey. It traveled 25 kilometers before hitting, at 8:53 A.M., an Iryo train that was stopped on the track. The investigation is ongoing and the sequence of events has not been confirmed in court.
Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the order issued from the Adif command center at Atocha station in Madrid “inexplicable.” He confirmed that the system was showing a red warning alerting to the presence of the stopped train.
The authorities reported that the person responsible for authorizing the advance is identified and under investigation, amid harsh questions about the state management of public transport after two serious accidents were recorded in the same year.
The judge in charge of the case barred access to anyone not involved in the work around the crash site, covering a two-kilometer perimeter along the high-speed line in both directions. The order bans the removal of materials and the dissemination of images in order to preserve evidence, traces and evidence for the clarification of criminal responsibilities.
Workers on Strike
The collision reignited harsh criticism of state management of public transport. Spain has now recorded two serious rail disasters in a single year.
The Spanish Union of Train Drivers and Rail Assistants (SEMAF) held a 24-hour national strike on Renfe services, including at Sants station in Barcelona, to demand better safety conditions on the rail network.
Drivers’ representatives said the lack of state investment in rail infrastructure directly compromises the integrity of workers and passengers. They demanded urgent hiring of more staff to avoid work overload and guarantee required rest, and a concrete protocol for extreme weather. They recalled recent weather events that caused derailments and infrastructure collapses, such as walls falling onto the tracks in Barcelona province.
The union urged the Government of Spain to direct budget funds toward renewing the network and strengthening safety across the public transport system.
The investigation remains open and the crash zone sealed. The union’s three demands, more staff, protected rest periods, and a weather protocol, now form part of a wider reckoning over how Spain runs its railways.
The results of the technical investigation and the judge’s inquiry will determine who bears responsibility. Authorities are expected to release updated figures as rescue and identification work continues.
